Novation, manufacturer of the Launchpad and Ultranova hardware synthesizer, have released a synthesizer for iPad!

iTunes Description:

Novation Launchkey is a powerful and unique analogue modelling synthesiser for iPad 2 and above.

Launchkey gives you 60 exciting patches (synth sounds) which you can use straight away to perform or produce music. You can change the sound of each patch with 8 virtual control knobs which each alter a particular element of the patch. This means that you can instantly tweak the sound to get the tone you want.

Launchkey also has a performance area which is an alternative way to bend and warp the sound coming from the synth engine. This consists of a number of 'nodes' and a 'control point'. Grab the control point and move it between the nodes to influence the sound. This results in a fast and super-intuitive way to morph your sound in real time.

I've been playing with it a bunch this morning. It is a fun take on "performance" synths, and uses the iPad interface well. Dragging around all the on screen circle-things can make for some very nice morphs. Documentation on Novation's site is limited, and there are no videos for it yet. I can't figure out how to assign what the circle-things are controlling, and it seems like the presets are hiding that from you. This can be annoying because some of the presets have way too much resonance, but none of the knobs will let you change it when resonance is not assigned to a circle-thing... which you also can't assign!

It is fun, sounds quite good for the most part, and is also free for a limited time!

Reader Comments 10

They put the core midi and background audio settings in iOSs settings app, for anyone wondering. Btw, in the second screen there is a save preset button but I can't figure out how to get to that, not that there is much to save at the moment but stil..

Its color coded. Look at the circles and their colors and then onto the performance knobs. It seems there are different nodes controlling the same parameters but probably there is some sort of gravitiy setting in the background. I love it, only downer is that as of now there is no way to set the tempo for the ARP and the FX's like delays. I am sure that will follow :)

Audiocopy allows you to render a 2 min track in a few seconds and paste it into another app/daw so the two are completely different things really, but preferably both should be available in an ideal world. :)

oh man, I really like the sound engine here, and I'm only listening on tinny ipad speaker. I sure hope we get full patch editing ability and some audio export. I think it's a great move to release a slightly under-featured product free, get feedback for improvement then raise the price when you've got it right. a stark contrast to some other recent products!

Awesome! I've been wondering if Novation was ever gonna get in on the Mobile game. Having killed off half my iPad's battery obsessing over this thing, I gotta say, I'm glad they did. Oddly enough, I think I enjoy the fact that there is next to no documentation support for this. It makes every element a mystery to try to solve, and it's unexpectedly satisfying to figure out what moving those hypnotic swirly . . . Things does. Can't wait to see where this app goes (Audiobus? Patch saving? A, eerm, manual?)